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Recovery Manager for AD Disaster Recovery Edition 10.0.1 - User Guide

Overview Backing up data
Permissions required for the Backup operation Managing Backup Agent Using a least-privileged user account to back up data Creating backups Retrying backup creation Enabling backup encryption Backing up AD LDS (ADAM) Backing up cross-domain group membership Backing up distributed file system (DFS) data Backup scheduling Setting performance options Setting advanced backup options Using Forest Recovery Agent Unpacking backups Using e-mail notification Viewing backup creation results Getting started
Permissions required to use Recovery Manager for Active Directory Recovery Manager Console Icons in the user interface Getting and using help Configuring Windows Firewall Using Computer Collections Managing Recovery Manager for Active Directory configuration Licensing
Restoring data
Getting started with Active Directory recovery Managing deleted or recycled objects Restoring backed up System State components Using granular online restore Restoring AD LDS (ADAM) Selectively restoring Active Directory object attributes Restoring objects in an application directory partition Restoring object quotas Restoring cross-domain group membership Performing a restore without having administrator privileges Reports about objects and operations Using complete offline restore Offline restore implications Restoring SYSVOL authoritatively Performing a granular restore of SYSVOL Recovering Group Policy Restoring data from third-party backups Using the Extract Wizard Restoring passwords and SID history
Fault tolerance Consolidating backup registration data Monitoring Recovery Manager for Active Directory Recovering an Active Directory forest
Permissions required to use Forest Recovery Console Forest Recovery Console Managing a recovery project Install Active Directory from Media recovery method Install Active Directory recovery method Managing Forest Recovery Agent Rebooting domain controllers manually Specifying fallback IP addresses to access a domain controller Resetting DSRM Administrator Password Purging Kerberos Tickets Managing the Global Catalog servers Managing FSMO roles Manage DNS Client Settings Configuring Windows Firewall Forest recovery overview Selectively recovering domains in a forest Recovering SYSVOL Deleting domains during recovery Resuming an interrupted forest recovery Recovering read-only domain controllers (RODCs) Checking forest health Collecting diagnostic data for technical support
Bare metal forest recovery Using Management Shell Creating virtual test environments Using Recovery Manager for Active Directory web interface Appendices
Frequently asked questions Best practices for creating backups for forest recovery Best practices for recovering a forest Descriptions of recovery or verification steps Backup Wizard Online Restore Wizard Online Restore Wizard for AD LDS (ADAM) Group Policy Restore Wizard Repair Wizard Extract Wizard Events generated by Recovery Manager for Active Directory

How does Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition isolate domain controllers during forest recovery?

How does Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition isolate domain controllers during forest recovery?

The overall success of a domain or forest recovery operation very much depends on the domain controllers being restored from backups. Not only it is important to ensure these domain controllers are restored from recent and trusted backups, it is also necessary to temporarily isolate these domain controllers to guarantee that no dangerous or unwanted data will be replicated to them from their replication partners and to block requests to Active Directory from client workstations during the recovery. Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition isolates domain controllers by creating a service dependency and using custom Internet Protocol security (IPSec) rules.

Before isolating the domain controllers being restored from backups, Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition backs up the IPSec settings existing in your environment to revert to these settings later.

Then, at the recovery step named Enable domain controller isolation, Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition does the following:

  1. Establishes a dependency between the IPsec Policy Agent (PolicyAgent) service and the Active Directory Domain Services (NTDS) service. As a result, the Active Directory Domain Services service cannot start until the IPsec Policy Agent service starts.
  2. Activates a number of custom IPSec rules defined in the IsolateDC.bat file.

The IsolateDC.bat file is located in the Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition installation folder (by default, this is %ProgramFiles%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition). The IPSec rules defined in the IsolateDC.bat file block all IP traffic between the domain controllers and their replication partners, except for the IP traffic generated by the following tools/services:

  • Remote Desktop Connection client
  • Ping command
  • File sharing services
  • Domain Naming System

These IPSec rules also apply to the IP traffic from the domain controllers to the Forest Recovery Console computer. Traffic from the Forest Recovery Console computer to the domain controllers is not affected by these IPSec rules.

Note: You can edit the IsolateDC.bat file to define the IPSec rules that become active during recovery. However, we cannot guarantee that problems that may occur if you incorrectly edit the IsolateDC.bat file can be solved. Edit the IsolateDC.bat file at your own risk.

At the recovery step named Ensure that domain controller isolation is disabled, Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition removes the dependency between the Active Directory Domain Services service and the NTDS service and uses the UnisolateDC.bat file to revert to the pre-recovery IPSec settings.

The UnisolateDC.bat file is located in the Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition installation folder (by default, this is %ProgramFiles%\Quest\Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition).

How does Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition select a DC to add the global catalog during forest recovery?

How does Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition select a DC to add the global catalog during forest recovery?

When recovering an Active Directory forest, Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition adds the global catalog to the DCs that acted as global catalog servers before the recovery, provided that these DCs were successfully restored from backup.

If none of DCs that acted as global catalog servers before the recovery were successfully restored from backup, Recovery Manager for Active Directory Disaster Recovery Edition adds the global catalog to the DC which was assigned the schema master role during the recovery.

Best practices for creating backups for forest recovery

How many instances of the Recovery Manager Console to deploy?

To recover your Active Directory forest with the Forest Recovery Console, you can only use backups created with the Recovery Manager Console. In simple environments, it is advisable to have only one Recovery Manager Console deployed. However, this may not be possible in large distributed environments that spread across different physical locations connected by slow links. In this case, you can deploy several instances of the Recovery Manager Console in each main physical location to back up domain controllers there.

You can also deploy several instances of the Recovery Manager Console if you want to

  • Delegate the right to back up individual Active Directory objects and perform online restores to other administrators in your environment, without delegating the right to run forest recovery operations.
  • Back up and restore individual Active Directory objects using backup and restore strategy and schedule specific to those objects.
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